WESTFIELD – Health Director Michael Suckau said Friday that a contract with the engineering consulting firm of Tight & Bond is currently being reviewed by city officials and that work will begin on improvements to the transfer station in the near future.
Tighe & Bond will provide design and permitting services to the city to upgrade the existing facility, including designs for a building which will enclose the new tipping facility. That work will also include revamping the existing traffic movement pattern within the nine-acre facility.
The improvements have been identified by the state Department of Environmental Protection as part of its review of the city’s petition to increase the tonnage passing through the transfer station.
The city is proceeding with the first phase of the process to secure a lift in the tipping tonnage at the Twiss Street Transfer Station, from the current 50 tons per day to 199 tons per day.
The current top tonnage is just sufficient to accommodate the residents rubbish collection now, but an increase in the tipping limit could open the Twiss Street facilities to commercial trash disposal, as well, which would allow commercial trash disposal.
Suckau said Friday afternoon that the Tighe & Bond contract is currently under review by the Law and Purchasing departments, then it will be sent to Mayor Daniel M. Knapik for his signature.
“The money for the contract is already encumbered, so they can begin work as soon as the contract process is completed,” Suckau said.
The DEP is requiring an enclosed transfer station, a requirement supported by the Federal Aviation Administration because open air transfer stations draw scavenger birds, including turkey vultures and the close proximity, as the crow flies, of Barnes Regional Airport to the Twiss Street transfer facility.
Tighe & Bond Vice Presidents Dana Huff and Project Manager Jaclyn Caceci presented details of the transfer station upgrade to the Board of Health Wednesday night.
“There is a market out there (for commercial trash disposal),” Huff said. “especially the local guys who don’t want to go far because of the rising fuel prices.”
“So there is a chance for the city to make some money,” Huff said. “The Twiss Street site makes sense because it already has a site assignment (issued through the DEP) and it’s isolated, so it a great location. Right now the highest and best use of that site is to improve it.”
Part of the engineering work is to assist the Health Department with the DEP tipping lift permit process, and to provide information such as the size of the structure, it’s height, and configuration on the property.
“The city will have to decide what sized building is needed, what it is willing to invest and the payback period for recovering that investment,” Huff said.
Caceci said the first phase of the engineering services will be to develop a schematic plan for the new facility and to initiate the state agency’s environmental review process. That initial phase will also include a demolition evaluation of an existing structure to determine if there is hazardous material, such as lead or asbestos, which would need to be mitigated prior to demolition.
Suckau said the plan will also include a reconfiguration of the gate and will need to have communication lines to enable the gatekeeper to accept electronic payment.
The cost of the initial engineering phase is $62,000 and the build-out of the new facility will cost more than $2 million. Huff said that engineering cost estimates are higher than traditional engineering cost because the permitting process is substantially more complicated than in the past.
Suckau said that another consideration of the initial engineering study will be to determine if the truck scale will be relocated or if a second scale will be needed.
The study will also help city officials determine costs of the compost operation, which take a great deal of the available land, and will be relocated to another city property and turned over to a private vendor.
“We have the option to keep it on the site, but it takes up a lot of room,” Suckau said. “Or we move it to another city-owned location, but you’d need to keep equipment and personnel. Again you’d need a lot of land for the compost operation and traffic flow.”
“A third option is to contract with a private vendor to take it from residents at no charge to the residents,” Suckau said. “I want to continue to provide that service that they are not charged for.”
Composting businesses make money on both ends of the deal, charging people to dump leaves and yard waste, then processing those material into a high grade topsoil sold to contractors and developers who call the product “black gold.”
